There are many production processes in which laser technology proves to be superior to conventional techniques of working materials. The laser beam is particularly effective in special processes involving such factors as aggressive media and radiation. Production processes of this type call for gas lasers of ever increasing power, which makes it extremely important to maintain optimum operating conditions of such lasers.
There is known a gas laser comprising a housing which accommodates two electrodes. One of the electrodes is sectional and has a ballast resistor connected to each of its sections. A gas mixture is passed through an active zone between the electrodes, where the laser effect is produced. Both electrodes are rigidly fixed.
However, only one mode of operation can be optimized with the fixed arrangement of the electrodes.
The laser under review has other disadvantages. It is known, for instance, that the electric resistance of the gas mixture in the active zone, where the laser effect is produced, is not constant in the direction of motion of the gas mixture. In order to equalize the current flowing through the ballast resistors, such resistors are selected so that their resistance values increase as the sections of the sectional electrode become increasingly remote from the inlet through which the gas mixture is forced to the active zone wherein the laser effect is produced. This complication makes gas lasers hard to manufacture and operate.
Furthermore, any variation in the parameters of the gas mixture, such as the composition or pressure, cuases a change in the electric characteristics of the active zone where the laser effect is produced. This affects the uniformity of current distribution among the individual sections of the sectional electrode, which, in turn, reduces the efficiency of the laser and in some cases is the cause of an arc discharge.